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West North East South www.vubridge.com - 1NT P 3♥ 6 deals for V-Blue #9. version P 4♥ PP P Contract: 4H VB#9 David Bird's 6 deals ACOL By: South Date: 07/10/2015 #: 1 Lead: ♦ T Dealer: North Vulnerable: E / W Play this hand online! This is a typical suit contract. In 4 ♥ you start with five potential losers (assuming that the trumps do not break 4-0). You can see that you North can a Spade in dummy. One possible ♠ J7 method of avoiding one of the Diamond losers ♥ K873 is to the ♦Q at Trick 1. Not many ♦ AQ4 defenders like to lead away from a king, ♣ QJ43 however, so it is likely that the ♦K lies offside (with East). West East ♠ ♠ KQ3 T9864 In any case, there is another possible way to ♥ ♥ J62 T get rid of a Diamond loser and that is to set up ♦ ♦ T986 KJ7 a discard on dummy's Clubs. You can draw two ♣ ♣ T87 A965 rounds of trumps with the ♥A and ♥Q and lead South the ♣K, When this is allowed to win, you can ♠ A52 play a Club to the ♣Q and ♣A. ♥ AQ954 ♦ 532 By good fortune it is East who wins the Club ♣ K2 trick. You capture his Spade return, cross to This series of six deals is by David Bird of dummy with the ♥K and discard a Diamond on England. the ♣J. Then you can give up a Spade and eventually ruff a Spade on the table. Whether you are a world champion or someone taking their first tentative steps in There are many occasions when it is wrong to the game, there is one good rule to follow: finesse at Trick one when the You should always make a plan before comes through an A Q combination. You need playing the first card from dummy. to plan the play to see if you have to take the finesse immediately. There are many players who have a different idea about how to play the game. They make a plan only when the contract seems to be in difficulty. By then, it may be too late!

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West North East South www.vubridge.com - - - 2♥ 6 deals for V-Blue #9. ACOL version P 4♥ P 6♥ PPP Contract: 6H VB#9 David Bird's 6 deals ACOL By: South Date: 07/10/2015 Board #: 2 Lead: ♦ J Dealer: South Vulnerable: N / S Play this hand online! Ambitious bidding lands you in a thin 6 ♥ contract. How should you play it after the ♦J lead? North ♠ J8742 Once dummy's ♦Q is covered by the ♦K, you ♥ QJ8 can see that you must lose a Diamond trick. ♦ Q54 You now have to make plans to dispose of your ♣ 43 three Club losers.

West East The plan must be to finesse the ♣Q (hoping that ♠ KT53 ♠ Q96 East holds the ♣K). If you survive this step, ♥ 6 ♥ T32 you can then ruff the ♣5 and ♣2 in dummy. ♦ JT96 ♦ K832 ♣ T987 ♣ KJ6 The first ruff should be taken with the lower South and the second ruff with the ♥J. If you ♠ A mistakenly ruff high on the third round of Clubs, ♥ AK9754 East would be able to overruff on the fourth ♦ A7 round. ♣ AQ52 One of the golden rules of bridge is that if you bid the cards aggressively you have to be able to play them well.

So on this deal, firstly you have to bid your cards to a high-level contract and secondly, you have to find the best way of steering your ship into the harbour.

Good luck!

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West North East South www.vubridge.com - - - 1NT 6 deals for V-Blue #9. ACOL version P 3NT P P P Contract: 3N VB#9 David Bird's 6 deals ACOL By: South Date: 07/10/2015 Board #: 3 Lead: ♠ K Dealer: South Vulnerable: All Play this hand online! You arrive in 3NT and contemplate a dummy where you have mutual weakness in Spades. After the ♠A has been knocked out by the North opening lead you need to take nine tricks ♠ 87 quickly or you will suffer defeat. ♥ Q32 ♦ AK7543 The lesson of this deal lies in the Diamond suit. ♣ 43 You must avoid blocking the suit. What does that mean? It means you should not leave West East yourself in the wrong hand. After taking the first ♠ ♠ KQJT5 9642 three tricks in the suit, which you can do only if ♥ ♥ K96 T85 the defenders' Diamonds break 2-2, you want to ♦ ♦ J6 Q9 be in the dummy. ♣ J52 ♣ KQ96 South To achieve this, you must play the ♦10 and ♦8 ♠ A3 on the first two rounds. Dummy's ♦7 can then ♥ AJ74 win the third round and the suit can be run off ♦ T82 without interruption. ♣ AT87 If you were to lead the ♦2 on the first round of Your partner takes a bit of a gamble on this the suit you cannot make the contract! Try it out deal. and see. Whether it will pay off depends on how you play the contract!

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West North East South www.vubridge.com - - - 1♣ 6 deals for V-Blue #9. ACOL version P 1♦ P 1NT P 3NT P P Contract: 3N VB#9 David Bird's 6 deals ACOL By: South P Date: 07/10/2015 Board #: 4 Dealer: South Vulnerable: None ♠ Play this hand online! Lead: Q You arrive in 3NT having opened the bidding with 1♣ and made a warped rebid of 1NT. West North leads his longest suit - a Spade - and you have ♠ 96 to think of the best way of making nine tricks ♥ KQ8 without losing five. ♦ AK84 ♣ T943 "Play on your longest suit!" did I hear you say? West East Well, that's a reasonable rule in general but you ♠ QJT53 ♠ 8742 shouldn't play bridge just by rules. You need to ♥ 973 ♥ 652 apply some brain power to the game as well. ♦ 962 ♦ QT73 There are actually two points to note on this ♣ A6 ♣ K8 deal. The first is that you cannot afford to play South on Clubs, seeking the extra tricks that you ♠ AK needed. That's because you have only one ♥ AJT4 Spade stopper remaining after the opening lead ♦ J5 and you need to knock out two Club stoppers. ♣ QJ752 The defence would have the to set up On this deal you arrive in the second-best three Spades and two Clubs. contract. (Yes, I know that you would have bid differently...) There is not much point The second point is that you have a chance of sitting there, wondering how the bidding scoring an extra Diamond trick by leading should have gone. towards the honour that you were hoping to score (the ♦J). This is a 50-50 chance, but Perhaps you can make the contract that you it's better than no chance. have reached? So the right play is to win the Spade lead, cross to dummy with a top Heart and lead a low Diamond towards the ♦J. If East (on your right) has the ♦Q he can do nothing to thwart you. If he takes the ♦Q and returns a Spade you can win, unblock the ♦J, cross to the other top Heart and take the ♦A K. Finally, you can take the last two Heart tricks.

And if West has the ♦Q? Then 3NT fails. As the French say - C'est la vie .

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West North East South www.vubridge.com - - - 2NT 6 deals for V-Blue #9. ACOL version P 3♣ P 3♦ P 3NT P P Contract: 3N VB#9 David Bird's 6 deals ACOL By: South P Date: 07/10/2015 Board #: 5 Dealer: South Vulnerable: All ♠ Play this hand online! Lead: 7 How should you play 3NT when West leads the ♠7? The states that you should North subtract the value of the spot-card led (7) from ♠ T542 11. The answer (4) tells you the number of ♥ KQT cards higher than the 7 that are held by the ♦ T8 other three hands (North, East and South). ♣ JT93 West East You can see three of these cards in your own ♠ KJ973 ♠ Q6 hand and the dummy. It follows that East will ♥ 9872 ♥ J43 hold the remaining one. This must be the king, ♦ J6 ♦ Q9754 queen or jack, because West would lead an ♣ A5 ♣ 864 honour if he held the ♠K Q J. You play low from dummy and East plays the ♠Q. Will you win this South trick or not? ♠ A8 ♥ A65 Yes! Dummy’s ♠10 5 4 will then act as a second ♦ AK32 stopper in the suit. You play on Clubs and West ♣ KQ72 takes his ♣A at some stage. He can score only Some of the famous guidelines to good two Spade tricks, so the contract is yours. You bridge play are more useful than others. will score at least one Spade, three Hearts, two Diamonds and three Clubs. See if you can spot one that may help you on this deal. Look what will happen if you mistakenly the first round of Spades. East will play another Spade to remove your ♠A. West will then be able to cash three more Spade tricks when he wins with the ♣A.

The Rule of 11 is not as useful as some teachers claim, but it does have its day!

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West North East South www.vubridge.com - 1♠ P 1NT 6 deals for V-Blue #9. ACOL version P 2NT P 3NT PPP Contract: 3N VB#9 David Bird's 6 deals ACOL By: South Date: 07/10/2015 Board #: 6 Lead: ♥ 6 Dealer: North Vulnerable: All Play this hand online! You reach 3NT and West leads the ♥6. How should you play the contract?

North The original declarer saw that he could score ♠ AKQ7 three Heart tricks if the opening lead were from ♥ K42 the ♥Q J. He played low from dummy and won ♦ QJ53 East's ♥J with the ♥A. When he played a Club ♣ K4 to the ♣K, this won the trick. West won the second round of Clubs and continued with the West East ♥Q, judging that the best chance of beating the ♠ ♠ 94 JT852 contract was to find the ♥10 bare in declarer's ♥ ♥ Q9765 J83 hand. ♦ A8 ♦ K96 ♣ ♣ A853 96 He soon cleared the Heart suit and the contract South went one down. ♠ 63 ♥ AT Did you spot the key move that declarer ♦ T742 missed? Yes, he failed to make a plan! ♣ QJT72 Many players would go down on this contract. Nine easy tricks are available, with three Afterwards they would all agree about one Spades, two Hearts and four Clubs. To ensure thing - they should have made it! that there is an to the long Clubs, you must win the opening lead with dummy's ♥K. You can then clear the Club suit (by leading the ♣K first) and will subsequently use the ♥A as an entry to the long cards.

There are myriads of bridge books that entreat you to make a plan before playing the first card from dummy. Sometimes this excellent advice pays dividends...!

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